Number 6:22-27 (Part 5) – Like A Kid Running When They Spot Their Dad’s Face…

Have you ever noticed that when a child has done something wrong that they will not look you straight in the eyes or even look at your face? It seems like it is a universal response to “getting busted” by your parents. I have had the chance in my life, through the blessings of God and the jobs that he has allowed me, to visit different countries and cultures either on mission trips or on business trips. I have had the opportunity to visit The Bahamas, Bermuda, Haiti, Grand Cayman, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, China (Hong Kong), Taiwan, and Thailand during my life so far. In those visits, even if I did not know the local language, you can tell when a kid has done something of which their parents disapproved. In all these different cultures, a kid will look away from their parent’s face when they have done something wrong. A child in any culture seems to understand that their parents seem to know everything. They know when their child is lying and when they are telling the truth. By looking at your parent’s face when confronted with your own lies or wrongdoing is like being seared by the truth. If we look our parents in the eyes, it is as if the lie will be boiled out of us by the purity of their judgment. How many times have you seen it with your own kids or just observing people when traveling. A parent with the child by the hand asking them if they did x or y and the kid trying to pull away, not looking at their parent, and lying about what really happened. Even if you are in a foreign country and they are speaking a language completely unknown to you such as Eastern European or Asian languages to me. You don’t know to know the language to watch these little vignettes of life play out. You say to yourself. I don’t know what that kid did and I don’t know the parent is saying to them but I bet that child lied about something and is now in trouble.

At the same token, the same is true in reverse. No matter the language when a child sees his parent at the airport after that parent has been gone on a long business trip and they see their dad’s face for the first time in weeks, the run to that face. The dad is smiling and the kid runs to their daddy and jumps in his arms. The joy of that moment I have known when my kids were young. Back in those days when my career was young I was an internal auditor and traveled a lot. Gone for one or two weeks sometimes three weeks at a time. When my girls would see me they would run to me and kiss me all over my face. They were happy to see my face. You see it in airports when dads return from long deployments in the Middle East where they are gone for months at time. Kids practically knock their dads down when they see his face. You have probably experienced it yourself in one way or another in your life when you have had small children. Those are priceless moments in time that get seared in your memory. They joy of your child seeing your face for the first time in a while. The approval of daddy’s face is gold to a child. As we are awaiting our grandchild at any moment now, that would be the advise that I would give to my son-in-law in dealing with my granddaughter that is about to arrive. Remember that your noticeable approval of your child’s actions are just as important as the scoldings when they have done something wrong. Don’t be quiet when she does things to make you proud and only speak up when she does something wrong. Let her know how proud you are when she does the right thing or accomplishes something she has never done before.

It is the approval or disapproval of a dad’s face when dealing with a child that I thought of when I read the words about asking God to make his face shine upon us. Let us read through today’s passage and think of what “to make his face shine upon you” really means here. Here, again, we read Numbers 6:22-27 once again for today:

22 The Lord said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:

24

“‘“The Lord bless you

and keep you;

25

the Lord make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

26

the Lord turn his face toward you

and give you peace.”’

27 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

In this case, the word we translate into English as “shine” is the word, ‘or, in Hebrew. Notice the apostrophe or carat or tilde or whatever it is before the letters of the word we know as “or”. When we say ‘or, it means the Lord causes His face, which means His presence, to bring us prosperity, to glorifies us, enlightens us, brings us revelation, give us knowledge, and share His passion with us, to know Him intimately.

Is not true that we all want God to look at us and smile. We want His approval and His favor. His favor is always there. He loves us and want to bring us good things, to enjoy us, to teach us, to reveal things to us, to give us deeper knowledge of Him, and to share His love of all mankind with us. He is there wanting intimacy with us. It is us who move away. He is always there. We allow our sins to get in the way of our relationship with Him. He will judge us for our sins but He would rather restore us. He would rather that we repent of our sins and come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. How often do we let our sins get in the way of relationship with God. We turn away like a child unwilling to face the truth that their parents know. We are the ones who turn away. We cannot look God in the eye when we have unrepentant sin in our hearts. We know. He knows it. He definitely knows it.

Through Jesus Christ and through the repentance of sin that the Holy Spirit identifies for us in our lives, we can honestly look in God’s eyes and see him smile back at us. He approves of us through our turning away from sin and through the forgiveness God grants us through Jesus Christ. He will shine His face upon us. Just as good fathers do not hold the bad behavior of their kids against them forever, God loves us and wants intimacy with us. He wants us to run and jump into His lap like a child happy to see his daddy. He wants to shine His Eternal Smile upon us.

Are you the child turning away from God’s face? Is their sin in your life for which you need to repent so that you do not have to turn away from the true, pure truth of God’s face? Wouldn’t you rather enjoy the intimacy of God’s warm smile. Confess your sins. You will be forgiven them through the grace of Jesus Christ because God is loving father. He wants not to be at odds with you where you are wrangling to get away from Him so that your lies will not be exposed. Confess. Repent. Be restored to the warmth of God’s smile.